Many people use information or knowledge as part of their function within a business or other organization. These knowledge workers acquire information from multiple sources and use the acquired information with respect to some business or other suitable activity to generate value for the organization. It is often desirable to monitor the activity of selected information within the organization and provide incentives to channel this activity according to the organization's particular needs. For example, an organization may provide various incentives for submitting information to a location accessible to others within the organization and monitor subsequent activity with respect to this information from a variety of perspectives.
As available information sources become larger and more complex to serve a variety of knowledge workers with particular information needs, incenting knowledge workers to make information available to others and monitoring subsequent activity concerning this information becomes increasingly important to the success of the organization. Existing systems for collecting and managing information have been inadequate to meet such needs, because they do not provide for effective submitting, accessing, updating, evaluating, incenting, and monitoring processes associated with the information or knowledge within the collective organization. As a result, prior systems do not adequately address the accrual of intellectual capital resulting from activity concerning this information or knowledge, which is an important aspect of succeeding in the modern global economy.